Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the government is aiming at attracting investments of around ₹10,000 crore in the industries sector in the next four years.
He was speaking at the launch of the government's initiative to establish one lakh Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the next one year here on Wednesday.
The Chief Minister said the target of the campaign was to generate around 3 to 5 lakh MSMEs. Over the past few months, the Industries department had coordinated with the Local Self-Government, Cooperative, Agriculture, Fisheries, Tourism and Finance departments to chalk out the plans for the next one year.
Technically qualified interns would be appointed in all local bodies by April to identify aspiring entrepreneurs and coordinate various activities. The local bodies would organise workshops to provide guidance to the entrepreneurs. In the second phase, licence melas, loan melas and facilities for financial aid would be arranged.
"The government is moving ahead with a clear plan to enable the State's leap in the industrial sector. We need to create the kind of modern job opportunities that the next generation would aspire for. Work for this has begun in the previous government's tenure, which is being further strengthened now. Ventures with investments of up to ₹50 crore can get licence within seven days, while MSMEs which mostly have less than ₹50 crore investment can function without licence for four years. They just need an acknowledgement from the single window system," Mr. Vijayan said.
He said 12,443 MSMEs started functioning in the past one year, generating 46,228 jobs. In the past six years, 3,500 start-ups were launched, generating 35,000 jobs. The total investment in start-ups which was ₹50 crore in 2016 has now increased to ₹3,200 crore, he said.
Industries Minister P. Rajeeve, who presided over the function, said the campaign to launch one lakh MSMEs would be a joint effort of the various departments along with Central public sector units (PSU)s, State PSUs, research institutes, trade unions and organisations of industrialists.
"Kerala is now placed 12th nationwide in the MSME sector. The past five years were crucial as we were able to double the number of MSMEs. The State Level Bankers’ Committee has agreed to take a favourable stand to improve credit to the MSMEs. The Cabinet has cleared the opening of private industrial estates. The government is enabling a favourable ecosystem for investment," Mr. Rajeeve said.
Minister for Local Self-Government Institutions M.V. Govindan, who released a booklet for the campaign, said employees in local bodies had to change their approach to entrepreneurs. In the past, there had been an attitude of dissuading investors, which was not suited for the changing times.
Minister for Cooperation V.N. Vasavan released the campaign logo.
Planning Board Vice Chairman V.K. Ramachandran said that industry should be the key to the future of Kerala, which had an extraordinary set of resources for industrialisation.
